Florence: The biography of a city
Another book by Christopher Hibbert and this is mostly a repetition of "The rise and fall of Medici" with a fast narration before and after the Medicis. The difference being a little more emphasis on the monuments of Florence. Possibly a good guide book if you are planning to visit …
read moreThe House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall
Christopher Hibbert is a historian for the tl;dr (too long; didn't read) generation. He condenses a huge span of history making it a great starting point to the reader who otherwise would be lost over where to begin.
The Medici family was one of the most powerful families in …
read moreThe Gene: An intimate history
Very few authors have the capability of successfully explaining science to the layperson. Siddhartha Mukherjee is one of them. His previous book, "The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer", brought out cancer onto our coffee tables and this brings genetics. Like in his book on cancer, the author …
read moreThe Long March
Disclaimer: I know the author of this book personally and read an early draft.
When I first read the draft of "The Long March" in 2016, I remember informing Namita that the ending was too filmy. Boy, some words come back to haunt you! I am glad that she held …
read moreAtlas Shrugged
1200 pages and 47 days! That's the longest it has taken me to complete a book yet. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand is a fictional story set in the United States of America where the government has been captured by crony capitalists who lobby to pass laws that restrict innovation …
read moreKahlil Gibran Selected Couplets
I love Kahlil Gibran's poetry and have been collecting his couplets as I read his books. Here are a few that I loved:
- A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.
- He who does not seek advice is a fool. His folly blinds …
Getting Things Done
Just looking at the title, I decided to take a dive into getting things done even before I started reading the book. So I started reading the book simultaneously with other books. And boy was I wrong! Not only does the book clearly discourage multi-tasking; it took me 3 months …
read moreSaving Capitalism from the Capitalists
Raghuram Rajan (former governor of RBI) and Liugi Zingales, a professor from Chicago's Booth School of Business have written this book to drive home the point that most capitalistic societies around the world are mostly crony capitalism; where the incumbents make use of a nascent market and capture it and …
read moreCoromandel : A personal history of South India
"Ashoka - the search for India's lost emperor" by Charles Allen was a mind-blowing book that showed how even history can be presented to it's readers like a thriller. To better such a book is a challenging task and thankfully Charles Allen sets the tone for the kind of book in …
read moreSteve Jobs
Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein and Henry Kissinger - all geniuses (possibly debatable). And then when you add Steve Jobs into the list, you know the author is out to prove a point. Walter Isaacson helms the only official biography of Steve Jobs, a mercurial genius.
It documents the …
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